Equal rights for agency workers - Back the Bill!
New Labour’s greatest shame and betrayal: its five-year opposition to the EU Temporary and Agency Workers Directive. Last year Andrew Miller MP’s Private Member’s Bill attempted to introduce the terms of the Directive into UK legislation: the Labour whips ensured that not enough MP’s had the bottle to turn up to vote for it, and the Bill failed.
Just to demonstrate that the departure of Blair has not diminished New Labour’s willingness to grovel before the CBI, Brown and his Business Secretary John Hutton are now determined to block Paul Farrelly MP’s similar Bill, due to be heard on Friday 22nd February. Indeed, they’ve ensured that the Bill will be heard on the day of the week when most MPs are back in their constituencies.
Derek Simpson and Tony Woodley, joint General Secretaries of Unite (’the Union’), have written to all Unite members who are also members of the Labour Party. Their message should be heeded by all socialists and trade unionists (anti-EU fanatics who claim to be on the ‘left’ can rationalise their own contradictions in their own time):
Dear Colleague,
Agency Workers - Back the Bill
We need your help with ensuring that the Agency Workers Private Member’s Bill will get through. This Bill will provide equal treatment on basic terms and conditions for Agency workers and is being put forward by Unite MP Andrew Miller.
For this Bill to make any progress we need to ensure that at least 100 Labour MPs will be in the House of Commons on Friday 22 February to vote for it. As Friday is usually a day that MPs are working in their constituencies we need you to stress the importance of voting for this Bill to your MP.
Unite members everywhere have been making it clear to the union about the problems with increasing casualisation in their workplaces. Agency workers are being used to undercut hard won rates of pay and terms and conditions and they are being exploited in the process. We know of numerous examples where this is causing tension in the workplace. Andrew Miller’s Bill will resolve many of these problems.
Unite and other unions have been working to address this problem across our economy through negotiations with employers and through legislation. Before the last election it was agreed between the unions and the government (the Warwick Agreement)that there would either be an EU Directive or UK legislation to put protection in place. This Bill will meet that commitment.
As a Unite member and a Labour Party member you are able to support this Bill in many ways, such as:
* Raising this issue urgently with your MP to ensure they will be in Parliament to vote for the Bill on Friday 22nd February. Let us know whether your MP will be there.
* Send the enclosed postcard to your MP.
* Get colleagues at work to send the postcard (you canget more postcards from your Regional Office).
* Raise the issue at your CLP meetings.
* Talk about the Bill with your colleagues in the union and in the party to raise the profile of the campaign.
Thank you for your support on this vital issue.
Yours sincerely
Derek Simpson Tony Woodley
